Reliability analyses of the collapse and burst of elastic/plastic tubes

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorNordgren, Ronald P.en_US
dc.contributor.advisorDurrani, Ahmad J.en_US
dc.creatorLi, Guangen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-06-04T06:29:14Zen_US
dc.date.available2009-06-04T06:29:14Zen_US
dc.date.issued2001en_US
dc.description.abstractThe innovative methods proposed in this thesis provide effective and efficient solutions to the reliability problems of burst and collapse of tubes with random geometric imperfections under internal or external pressure. Steel tubes have broad applications in petroleum offshore engineering and must be designed to a safe but yet economical standard. The variation of imperfections from tube to tube necessitates a statistical characterization in which the burst and collapse pressures become random variables. In order to evaluate the burst and collapse pressure of a pipe with deterministic geometric imperfections, the finite element method is employed with a cylindrical shell element based on classical nonlinear shell theory. This element implements the return mapping algorithm for an elastic/plastic material and includes the effects of shell thinning and geometric imperfections. Incorporation of this finite element program into a reliability program developed for this study provides an effective numerical tool for the probabilistic analyses of the burst and collapse problems. For these analyses, the pipe thickness is modeled as an axially homogeneous and circumferentially inhomogeneous Gaussian random field based on measured data from two groups of pipes. Using the developed shell finite element program, Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be applied to the burst/collapse reliability problems. However, the enormous computational effort makes MCS infeasible except as a check for selected cases. Unfortunately, the system reliability method does not apply to the present problems because there are an infinite number of design points due to the special structure of the imperfections. Thus, a new approximate method is developed for the burst problem based on the correlations between the minimum thickness and burst pressure. The probability distribution of minimum thickness is obtained through an innovative homogenization procedure. Similarly, the collapse reliability problem is solved through introduction of a homogenized collapse function whose minimum correlates with the collapse pressure. The proposed reliability methods are applied to selected cases and verified by MCS. The effect of length on reliability in burst and collapse is investigated. Compared to MCS, the efficiency of the new methods makes them especially applicable to engineering problems, such as pipeline design and manufacturing quality control.en_US
dc.format.extent207 p.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoTHESIS C.E. 2001 LIen_US
dc.identifier.citationLi, Guang. "Reliability analyses of the collapse and burst of elastic/plastic tubes." (2001) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/17998">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/17998</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/17998en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectCivil engineeringen_US
dc.titleReliability analyses of the collapse and burst of elastic/plastic tubesen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentChemical and Biomolecular Engineeringen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineEngineeringen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
3021157.PDF
Size:
5.99 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
Collections
Rice University Theses and Dissertations